IE8 Rendering Modes

With Internet Explorer (IE) 8, Microsoft has significantly improved support for commonly used Web specifications, such as Cascading Style Sheets. However, because earlier versions of IE implemented these specifications before they were finalized or in nonstandard ways, many Web developers created their pages so they would look and function properly in past versions of IE rather than conforming to the specifications.

This creates a potential problem: when IE8 encounters such a page, it might appear broken. The solution used by Microsoft (and other browser makers facing the same issue) is to have developers insert a tag onto Web pages developed for past versions of IE.

Specifically, IE8 will ship with the following rendering modes:

IE8 Standards. By default, IE8 will display all pages in this mode.

IE7 Standards. Developers who have designed pages for IE7 can insert a tag to tell IE8 to display the page in IE7 Standards mode.

Quirks. Developers with pages designed for IE5 or IE6 can insert a tag to tell IE8 to display the page in Quirks mode. (In many cases, developers have already made this change so their pages display properly in IE7.)